Jon Gildea - November 2015

Posted on Monday 30th of November 2015.

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I was lucky enough to again be selected to ride for the British Cycling Team at the recent P1 international race in Manchester.I had a good hard block of training prior to the competition with plenty of track time which served me well. It was great to be at the velodrome twice a week for a month or so occasionally bumping into superstar cyclists at the same time.

My form at the P1 was mixed after maybe pushing the training just a bit too hard the week before competition, left me a bit under the weather. Valuable lessons learned from my pre-event build up and I still managed to win the Individual Pursuit and the scratch race whilst placing 3rd with my team mates Jaco Van Gass and Louis Rolf in the team sprint. The event gained us some valuable qualification points for our participation in Rio at the Paralympics and I was happy to do my bit. It’s always good to top the podium after putting the hard training in on and off the bike.

Christmas plans

Next for me is a winter block of lots of miles on the bike and time in the gym getting stronger. I’ve got 18 hours on the bike to do on Christmas week including 3 on Christmas day, so there’s not going to be any big Christmas party’s for me this year. The team selection for Rio isn’t until May so my plan is to put everything I have learned into practice for the final push for places.

Train hard, work smart, discipline, routine and manage my time to the best of my ability. 2016 could be a huge year for me!

Thanks again to everyone at Owl and Openwork for the support for 2015 and I look forward to catching up with you again soon.

Training Tip

Base fitness is key if you want to get to a good level at sport. It’s not all about going flat out or hurting yourself with every session. Fitness is built in layers and if you want to get to the top level you have to put in a good foundation. In my case lots of steady miles and hours on the bike gives my body the capacity to handle the more intense training when it comes around